Frontier and pioneer life -- Idaho -- Fiction; Siblings -- Fiction; Western stories
"Sure. Wasn't it by coming over to bring me that bill that you found
out all about Boykin Hunter and the chance to contest his filing?"
"Sure enough. I'd forgotten. How did his case come out? Did he get the
six months he deserved?"
"Not yet. Joyce was there, and he made a big powpow; said he could
bring witnesses to prove that Boykin was a noble character, that he
wouldn't hurt a fly, and so on. Asked for a stay until next court.
Garnett says that's to give him time to chase round and find another
man to put on that land. He's going to keep an eye on him,--Garnett on
Joyce, I mean,--and if anything suspicious seems to be brewing, he'll
chase down here and warn us."
"That's nice of him, isn't it? You aren't mad at him any longer?"
"At Garnett? Of course not. I was sore at him for being so bull-headed
about his horse; but of course he was right to hang on to his
suspicions until they were proved wrong. He was there this morning in
court. He saw Mason last night, too, and learned the whole story about
this horse deal. Yes, Garnett's a good fellow. It's fellows like him
and old Dan Brannan that show a fellow what the West really is--the
place where the man himself counts every time."
He got up and stretched himself. "I think I'll drive over to Soldier
to-morrow and get a load of lumber. It's too dry to plow, and it won't
be long before I'll be going haying and harvesting. If I get the lumber
in now, we'll be ready to start building the house early in September."
"Where shall we put the house? I wish we could have it farther up the
glen, near the trees."
"Let's go look round," suggested Rob.
As they walked up the slope, Harry said suddenly, "Oh, yes, I've meant
to ask you a dozen times: how did Garnett's horse happen to be in that
bunch of colts? I never told you how Garnett came here one day to look
for his horse." She went on to relate what had happened, and why she
had always put off telling him of it.
"Isn't that queer, the way a little incident can twist everything!"
Rob exclaimed. "If I'd known that, I'd probably never have ridden the
horse; never have got pinched anyhow, for refusing to tell where he
came from. The way Jones happened to have him was this: You remember
Garnett said he'd lost him? Well, a half-breed up in the reserve had
stolen him, along with another, and was on his way to Boise when he met
Jones coming this way, and got him to give him a colt in exchange for
the two saddle horses."
"Goodness me! What a tangle, and yet how simple when once you know what
caused it all! And where is Jones now? They didn't keep him a prisoner
in Shoshone----"
"Oh, no, he's at liberty, but he had to stay and see how the matter
was coming out. He said that after he pays his debts he's going into
Oregon again to buy more colts."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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